A Four-Year Battle of Life and Death “Please Get Healthy, Son”

--The sky falls in on him

In March of 2000, three-year-old Young-gil was diagnosed with leukemia and that took the smile off the face of actor Kim Myung-guk, who was well known for his heart-warming smile. He blamed God and drank heavily, but he realized despair only deters hope, so he soon pulled himself together.

Doctors advised him that a bone marrow transplant was needed since his son’s hematopoietic stem cells didn’t properly function.

In other words, a blood factory inside of his body had to be replaced.

Although an extensive search was done, he couldn’t find a donor. Even if he could find a donor, the chance that the donor’s and Young-gil’s DNA would be a tissue match was only one in twenty thousand.

Too urgent to wait to find a donor, an anti-cancer drug treatment on Young-gil started first.

A battle against a cancer began. Repeated hospital stays and leaves followed. Young-gil’s immune system became very weak and he would have a high fever and lose consciousness just by getting a cold. In an ambulance in the middle of the night, the couple often became terrified.

Then one day, all the cancerous cells in Young-gil’s body vanished. Young-gil went back to school and became cheerful and happy. But Mr. Kim knew that a person can be cancer–free only when he hasn’t had cancer for five years or more.

The concern became a reality when cancerous cells were found again in May 2003. Mr. Kim didn’t know what to do. Everything fell apart and hope dried out. There was no option but to undergo a bone marrow transplant.

Four months later, Mr. Kim participated in a Gobi desert marathon to raise awareness of bone marrow transplants. The desert sand was boiling hot: over 50 degrees Celsius during the day and freezing cold of below zero Celsius at night. But he ran 40-50km every day for six nights and seven days without a complaint.

Even after his marathon, he couldn’t find a donor. While he was looking for a donor, he learned that cord blood from childbirth has hematopoietic stem cells.

He visited many obstetrics clinics from last November and handed out flyers to ask people to donate cord blood in Daehak-ro, one of the busiest streets in Seoul. He acquired a new nickname: “cord blood evangelist.”

Maybe heaven does help those who help themselves. In February this year, they got enough cord blood which matched Young-gil’s cell tissues so the doctors could perform an operation on him.

-We still have hope

The operation was successful. Young-gil’s blood type changed from B to A because his donor’s blood type was A. Usually when a stem cell is transplanted, a patient’s blood changes depending on that of a donor, but some portion of the blood is still the patient’s old blood. An operation is considered successful when more blood from a donor is transfused. In Young-gil’s case, he doesn`t have any of his own blood left any more. But his A type blood should be maintained at least another two or three years for the operation to be called as a perfect success: that’s why his parents are still very cautious.

It was about this time that Young-gil got his new name. Young-gil’s old name was Ju-ho. Young- gil (永佶) means “forever be healthy.”

There are still many mountains to climb. He suffers from breathing difficulties, because of an unknown virus that invaded his body while his immune system was weak. He has to depend on a respiratory support for 30-40 minutes three or four times a day.

It’s a daunting task to take an immunosuppressive drug twice a day, but he hates the side effects of having patches of facial hair even worse. He has to also take antibiotics and X-rays every day.

The treatment doesn’t come cheap either. So far, the family has spent about 300,000,000 – 400, 000,000 won. They can’t imagine how much more they will have to spend in the future.

However, Young-gil is very bright and cheerful. Mr. Kim said he is so proud and grateful that this first grader endures all these pains. Mr. Kim, who is always by his son’s side when his doesn’t have his shooting schedule, seems to be cheerful, too. He said when his son becomes healthy again, his family would like to go out and eat sushi and sashimi together, because Young-gil can’t eat anything raw right now.

“At first, I only thought about Young-gil, but now I am changed. He is the hope of many children who are suffering from the same decease. I will make him healthy again at any cost.” He became slightly teary, not only because he was having a difficult time. His tear was a tear of hope.

Sang Hoon Kim corekim@donga.com